I thought the article "Globalization of Beauty Makes Slimness Trendy" was interesting. It makes me wonder why the western world has so much power over these women in Africa. I remember reading a few years ago how in the African culture, it was a sign of wealth and beauty to be very curvy. Often women would take steroids for horses to acheive this level of size. Now I read an article about how the younger generation of women in Africa is striving for thinness, and I just dont get why in the process of a few years these teenage girls have been conditioned so much to view thinness as beauty. Its pretty obvious that media plays a large role, but I guess I didnt realize how large a role until reading this article.
I never thought of hair as playing a big role in feminism or even sexuality. I guess the idea of long beautiful flowing hair is exrepessed in the media as "sexual" but i thought as long as your hair is clean you can style it however you want and still look feminine. I also like the story about the Most Beautiful Girl and how because of the winner Nigeria's culture is shifting towards the more dominant thin is good thing. It is amazing how our culuture is all about dieting and over there they are sent out to get fattened up before they are wed.
Brandi Schiefelbein
Reading this made me think about how black women need to get their voice here more in movies and tv. There is not very many black women that make moves and show the world their point a view in things. There should be more programs that help so that more women can get their ideas in movies, so that everyone can understand how they feel. The world does not only need to know how white men feel and there views on life.
This article was pretty interesting because it talks about things that I have never considered being a white female. It was very interesting to read about black women being put on display for aristocratic parties, I have never heard of that. Also I have not considered that black women are seen as the standard black sexuality. To me it seems like the author is very proud of being a black female and like most black people proud through what they have gone through.
I have to say I never realized how hair really affected our society, but Banks pointed out some very important facts and relations that I never even thought of. After reading her article I do realize that certain types hair and hairstyles are associated with certain types of people. I realized that I do associate long hair with femininity and associate short hair with masculinity. This article was a real eye opener for me because it shows that women are expected to have a certain type of hair and if they don’t conform to that hairstyle then they are criticized or questioned, yet a man can wear his hair in really any form he wants and most of the time people don’t even think twice about his sexuality.
Ingred Banks
In this article Banks raise the point how race and gender in our society merge to stigmatize and repress black women by the form of thair hair. People (managment) in the work force use in one case of how one woman hairstyle was to extreme or too ethnic as a tool to justify thier reason for terminating her job. but according to research interviews by Banks, how black women present their har is their way of expressing their individual and identiy. They want to freely execuse their legal right by showing the world how they would like to be view in term of; identity, gender, class, sexuality and beauty without having other to stereotype them as too extreme or ethnic.
Knowing all too well the ins and outs of eating disorders, I really enjoyed reading "'A Way Outa No Way:' Eating Problems Among African-American, Latina, and White Women." Because the causes of my own problems were the same ones we are all taught in school (ie. perfectionism, media, etc.), I guess I never realized there were others. In this article, we learned about sexual abuse, poverty, heterosexism, and racism as causes of eating disorders. I liked how the notion that women don't just develop body consciousness issues because they're vain came up. The one that especially caught my eye was 'heterosexism.' That is something that would NEVER have crossed my mind. I guess I never thought of homosexual women as the sort to develop image issues. Another thing I found interesting in this article was the focus on binging and reasons for iits causes. I was unfamiliar with the whole topic before, so I never understood or bothered to understand it. I know it sounds cliché, but this essay has opened my eyes. I think that still today, however, people often think that these issues are reserved for vain, upper-class, white teengagers, when, in truth, they know no race, age, class, or even gender.
I thought “Hair Still Matters” and “Globalization of Beauty Makes Slimness Trendy” tied in together because a lot of races and their cultures as well as identities are being lost because many people try to get acknowledged by conforming into the Western society’s ideals. I remember before coming to this country people were viewed as pretty if they had a “little meat in them” (in other words voluptuous) and I struggled gaining weight then I come here and it’s the opposite. Just as in “Globalization of Beauty Makes Slimness Trendy” the elders easily dismiss other societies views whereas younger generations hunger to be accepted by all are easily to transform themselves and adapt. Having hair or lack of can contribute a lot to whether or not a person is in and how others will view them. I think it’s really sad that we all have to fit a certain mold or what society wants us to be in order to fit. I am also for having styles that have their own personality and give you your own identity, but even I sometimes find myself taking the easy way out because I don’t want people to make any assumptions. I prefer to wear my hair braided just because it’s less time consuming and it looks good, but I walk out and I find people thinking that I am one thing or another. It’s awful to think of all the children at young ages struggling to fit in certain molds.
Banks’ article offered a lot of examples and perspectives of different women on how hair relates to femininity and sexuality. I think she’s trying to point out that hair still matters to people of all different backgrounds, and that it is unfortunate how significant people’s locks have become. I guess I came up with my own example of how hair matters: one of the main detectives, Olivia Benson, on Law and Order, has her hair cut really short. For some reason this morning I was watching an old ER episode this morning and the same actress was on the show, with really long hair, and this time she was playing some sort of receptionist or nurse. Point being she had to cut her hair short to portray the more masculine role of a detective later on in her career. Regrettably, Banks is dead on about how much hair matters.
This wasn't the first time that I have seen this movie and seeing it a second time really healped me to see some of the things that the professor was trying to point out. It is so true that women are used as sex objects to sell products and services because it works. You'll rarely see any man do full frontal nudity or any for that matter but it has almost become a requirement for women to do when they enter the film industry and that includes comercials and printed ads. There is also the idea that the media protrays about products they sell, "if you buy this you can look as good as this model" when in reality she was air-brushed to perfection and they'd never show any type of flaw that she might actually have because it would hinder the idea of perfection that they are trying to get across.
I agree with the Banks article (Hair still matters) from personal experience. How do we charaterize what is feminine? I used to have a mowhawk and short hair as a result and I was hit on by lesbian women and was called a lesbian multiple times becuase of the length of my hair. I think this is especially hard for black women to fit into the white ideal of what is feminine. Maybe the white ideal of what is feminine should not apply to black women. Maybe they need their own ideal of what is feminine since it is hard for them to have long smooth locks of hair.
Joan Rivers’ views on cosmetic surgery are…interesting, for lack of a better word. The comedian has an objective to achieve her true, “normal” self, but this vision of self is pretty delusional. She tries to mask her motives for the surgery by calling them “tune ups,” when most likely she is trying to achieve an unrealistic standard of beauty, to the point where it becomes an addiction. The dangers of the procedure are something Rivers doesn’t even take into account during the interview, and it would be hazardous to follow in her footsteps. The only positive aspect about the amount of Rivers’ surgeries is that one can learn a lesson from her mistake.
After reading the article about Joan Rivers I was appalled at the quote "A bad face-lift is better than none at all" and "But if Rivers had to pick between being overdone and not done enough, 'no question', she says'overdone!'"
I think this is an example of personal plastic surgery that has gone to far. I guess I can agree if you are having plastic surgery to better yourself and to feel good about your self but shouldn't we work on the inside/emotional part first before being impulsive about plastic surgery? I personally believe that if you are doing plastic surgery on a whim and not because it is a last resort it shouldn't be done at all. How low do we have to stoop to reach beauty standards? Why do we have to meet them at all? Is bettering ourselves to "feel good" about who we are a societal institution or standard that we have been programmed into our brains to think that we have to look better than we are already? What is wrong with flab and small breasts?
I found the topic of gender to be the most exciting so far in the course. This topic relates back to Audre Lourde's article about being a black lesbian in America. I found it interesting that she talks about oppression. We can also look at the model of oppression (aka. the birdcage) and apply it to the topic of gender. we can then see that gender is a socially created type of oppression that has a system and pressures coming from all directions.
From this article, rosalinda Mendez Gonzalez addresses the isssue of how different class of imcome oppress one another; thus proving that the oppressed can become the oppressor. She stated in her article since the western expansion dating back to the 1800s, ethical minorities had has been the target for inequal rights to employment, medical care and living standard. They (hispanic ) suppered from unfair employment wages from their employers, mainly anglo-american families, " it also provided a pool of serverly underpaid Mexican female servants whose dusk-to-dawn exploitation in the homes of Anglo-american families freed the women of these families to seek outside employment and enter the industrial world." This reflex on the point that the oppressed can become the oppressor. In this case of white female oppressing the mexican female so that they could freely work in the industrial world where they can be oppress by the male.
I don't begrudge the notion that I have a notably conservative outlook on the world. In fact, I embrace it with all I am. For this reason, taking a course as seemingly liberal as "Women's Studies" has proved quite an experience for me. The topic over gender and the question as to whether it is an innate sense-of-being or simply a result of social constructionism has especially vexed me. Usually, I can quickly conclude one thing or another, but this I constantly brood over. I feel as though I should follow the "essentialist" view, but some points made under a "social constructionist" view also make sense to me.
I want to say that maybe both ideas can merge and that the correct answer boasts parts of each one, but I don't think it's that easy. I mean, a man and a female's brain ARE different...we have seen this through research. Our brain waves are always different due to our hormones; however, what these results really mean concerning this topic are unclear because the results are electric and difficult to comprehend. That, along with the "fact" that women are more sensitive, more non-violent, and yaddah yaddah yaddah, leads me to believe the essentialists. However, it is a valid argument to say that when a baby's sex is discovered, every aspect of that child's life (toys, music, activities) depends on the results of that simple anatomy test.
I guess, all in all, I think that women are distinctively women as men are distinctively men through their separate instincts and such, but I also believe that some of our gender traits were created through social construction. That may be ignorance, but it's difficult for me to think that my personality would be different (possibly more masculine) if my doctor had never said, "It's a girl."
I don't begrudge the notion that I have a notably conservative outlook on the world. In fact, I embrace it with all I am. For this reason, taking a course as seemingly liberal as "Women's Studies" has proved quite an experience for me. The topic over gender and the question as to whether it is an innate sense-of-being or simply a result of social constructionism has especially vexed me. Usually, I can quickly conclude one thing or another, but this I constantly brood over. I feel as though I should follow the "essentialist" view, but some points made under a "social constructionist" view also make sense to me.
I want to say that maybe both ideas can merge and that the correct answer boasts parts of each one, but I don't think it's that easy. I mean, a man and a female's brain ARE different...we have seen this through research. Our brain waves are always different due to our hormones; however, what these results really mean concerning this topic are unclear because the results are electric and difficult to comprehend. That, along with the "fact" that women are more sensitive, more non-violent, and yaddah yaddah yaddah, leads me to believe the essentialists. However, it is a valid argument to say that when a baby's sex is discovered, every aspect of that child's life (toys, music, activities) depends on the results of that simple anatomy test.
I guess, all in all, I think that women are distinctively women as men are distinctively men through their separate instincts and such, but I also believe that some of our gender traits were created through social construction. That may be ignorance, but it's difficult for me to think that my personality would be different (possibly more masculine) if my doctor had never said, "It's a girl."
I don't begrudge the notion that I have a notably conservative outlook on the world. In fact, I embrace it with all I am. For this reason, taking a course as seemingly liberal as "Women's Studies" has proved quite an experience for me. The topic over gender and the question as to whether it is an innate sense-of-being or simply a result of social constructionism has especially vexed me. Usually, I can quickly conclude one thing or another, but this I constantly brood over. I feel as though I should follow the "essentialist" view, but some points made under a "social constructionist" view also make sense to me.
I want to say that maybe both ideas can merge and that the correct answer boasts parts of each one, but I don't think it's that easy. I mean, a man and a female's brain ARE different...we have seen this through research. Our brain waves are always different due to our hormones; however, what these results really mean concerning this topic are unclear because the results are electric and difficult to comprehend. That, along with the "fact" that women are more sensitive, more non-violent, and yaddah yaddah yaddah, leads me to believe the essentialists. However, it is a valid argument to say that when a baby's sex is discovered, every aspect of that child's life (toys, music, activities) depends on the results of that simple anatomy test.
I guess, all in all, I think that women are distinctively women as men are distinctively men through their separate instincts and such, but I also believe that some of our gender traits were created through social construction. That may be ignorance, but it's difficult for me to think that my personality would be different (possibly more masculine) if my doctor had never said, "It's a girl."
In Judith Lorber’s article I think she makes a very valid statement that society feels that they must place an individual in a gender class whether it be male, female, transvestite, or transsexual. Of course I believe that society as a whole fells much more comfortable to categorizing people as male or female rather than transvestite or transsexual. Society is very closed to change and when they can’t categorize someone in the so-called “norm” they become afraid and closed off to the idea that someone can be different. This of course is wrong. Everyone should be open to new ideas and changes even if that means a group of people cannot be placed into a certain gender class. If an individual makes the decision not to be placed into a certain group then society should accept that, understand their decision, and make the choice not to place them into a certain gender class.
In Judith Lorber’s article I think she makes a very valid statement that society feels that they must place an individual in a gender class whether it be male, female, transvestite, or transsexual. Of course I believe that society as a whole fells much more comfortable to categorizing people as male or female rather than transvestite or transsexual. Society is very closed to change and when they can’t categorize someone in the so-called “norm” they become afraid and closed off to the idea that someone can be different. This of course is wrong. Everyone should be open to new ideas and changes even if that means a group of people cannot be placed into a certain gender class. If an individual makes the decision not to be placed into a certain group then society should accept that, understand their decision, and make the choice not to place them into a certain gender class.
This was a goo article. Sojouner Truth had ideas of how women are treated and thought of in an early time. There was not as many women at the time that thought of how women were not treated as well as men and that not all women are treated that same as each other. She knew that all women are just as good in their own different ways. She saw that black women did more of what was called mens work, and white women did not have to. This showed that not all races of women had the same rights.
I must say that I did learn something from Debra Gimlin's article. It was interesting learning each patient's view on plastic surgery and why they went with the procedure. However, what surprised me in some way was the fact that none of the patients decided to do plastic surgery because of their significant other or friend. They did it for themselves. I understand why they went ahead and did plastic surgery, but it seems that they just want to fit into the societies view of beauty, even though they say it is only for themselves and not because of how society perceives beauty.
I was fascinated at the process that people were going through when there children were born with ambuguous sex. I think that its a very true statement that parents want to be able to say that its a boy or a girl but if they are given a child with an unidentifiable sex is it OK for them to chose? With todays technology I believe that we could make good educated guesses as to which sex the child ought to be but is that necessarily the sex that the child will later identify with, because if it is not then there will be damage done to the individual that maybe could have been avoided had the parents just allowed for time to tell what sex the child would become. If a child is born with the gonads of a famle and the genitalia of a male one would think that it be best to stick with the genitalia but the horomeones don't match and obviously something is askew because if the hormones were right then how would there be female reproductive organs but male genitalia?
This is the section 5 (Friday) blog for Women's Studies 1001. Please feel free to add your comments regarding our readings here. Please post your comments no later than Noon on Thursdays before our discussion. You may post your own thoughts or add onto another class member's ideas.